Published 12:00 am, Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Donald Led Duke of BBL Construction Services, left, talks with Albany Mayor Gerald D. Jennings, following a press conference Oct. 1, 2008, to discuss a new building at 22 New Scotland Ave. for use by Albany Medical Center. Led Duke was found dead Monday morning. (Philip Kamrass / Times Union archive)

Donald Led Duke of BBL Construction Services, left, talks with...

Donald Led Duke of BBL Construction Services, left, shakes hands with Albany Mayor Gerald D. Jennings, following a press conference Oct. 1, 2008, to discuss a new building at 22 New Scotland Ave. for use by Albany Medical Center. Led Duke was found dead Monday morning.(Philip Kamrass / Times Union archive)

Donald Led Duke of BBL Construction Services, left, shakes hands...

Donald Led Duke of BBL Construction Services, right, is courtside March 8 before the start of Siena's third straight MAAC Tournament victory. Led Duke was found dead Monday morning. (Philip Kamrass / Times Union)

Downtown high-rises. Dorms at the University at Albany. The Patroon Creek Office Park. New hotel and office buildings on New Scotland Avenue. The expansion under way at St. Peter's Hospital.

Led Duke, who died Monday at the age of 64, dominated the city's construction scene as chairman and owner of BBL Construction Services, a firm with hundreds of local workers and annual revenue of nearly $400 million.

But Led Duke didn't start big.

He entered construction in the 1960s as a bricklayer and climbed through the ranks to take the reins at BBL in 1998. That ascent -- and his larger-than-life personality -- made Led Duke a regional figure of legend.

"He got it done," said Albany Mayor Jerry Jennings, a friend for 20 years. "He was respected for that."

Led Duke was found dead Monday morning in his Voorheesville home, a shock to friends who said he showed no outward signs of illness. Led Duke leaves behind a wife, Mary Louise, and children. The cause of death was not disclosed Monday.

Friends painted a complex picture of Led Duke.

They said he was fiercely competitive and a tough-as-nails negotiator, but generous with time and money. He was gregarious but shunned publicity. He had an impressive corner office, but was informal with his employees. He lived large and spent money freely, but remained humble and true to his roots as a mason.

"His handshake was as good as any contract," said Anthony Sabatino, a commercial real estate broker who frequently works with BBL.

"Once you shook his hand, it was done," said Howard Carr, a Colonie-based broker and developer. "He stuck by it."

Rival executives in recent years grumbled about Led Duke's political connections, believing those ties helped BBL win work. Led Duke fiercely disputed the claims -- "What we do, we earn," he told the Times Union last year -- but it is clear his alliances with Albany's political establishment ran deep.

Jennings and Led Duke traveled together to see the New York Giants, a team Led Duke loved. After former Albany Police Chief James Tuffey, a close Led Duke friend, resigned abruptly last year, he took a security job with BBL.

Led Duke was a prolific political fundraiser and contributor, giving at least $1.1 million to candidates since 1999, according to the state Board of Elections.

"He wanted to contribute to any politician who could help his business," said Marc Gronich, a former executive director of the Albany County Republican Committee who worked for BBL in the early 2000s. "He felt that was the way to make him competitive with getting contracts."

Friends, though, said that attributing Led Duke's achievement to political connections ignores BBL's success with a streamlined process that allowed the company to buy land, design a project and quickly get a building constructed.

Led Duke ran a gutsy company, they said, a firm that built in parts of the country, such as Florida and West Virginia, where it had less political influence.

The company reflected Led Duke's personality. He was a gambler who loved Las Vegas, and BBL was likewise willing to gamble in areas, such as downtown Albany, where other developers were less eager to work.

Late in life, Led Duke still had a bricklayer's build and hands. He told the Times Union he was still a mason at heart.

"I'm a bricklayer, and I'm doing all right," he said.

Prominent recent Capital Region projects by BBL include the 677 Broadway tower and the state comptroller's office at 110 State St., the Hilton Garden Inn in Troy, the Movieland theater in downtown Schenectady, and five new buildings along New Scotland Avenue in Albany.

"He did good work in this city," said Michael Yevoli, Albany's commissioner of development and planning. "He did good things, and he took risks. I think the city of Albany lost a great booster, a great friend and a great developer."

Led Duke's future might have been hard to imagine in the late 1960s, when he was an apprentice bricklayer working on office buildings at Stuyvesant Plaza in Guilderland.

But Frank Travis, a Glenmont resident who worked with him then, said Led Duke was already talking about running a large construction company. He was fiercely ambitious, Travis said.

That ambition apparently didn't wane. BBL and Columbia Development, an adjunct company housed in the same office building, are involved in a slew of prominent projects.

Planned projects include a role in construction of a convention center in downtown Albany; the rebuilding of Wellington Row across from the Capitol, redevelopment of the Harriman State Office Campus, and the development of the Vista Technology Park in Bethlehem.

Led Duke didn't apologize for his dominance.

"This is a wide-open town," he said 2008. "After we do (a project), people say, 'We could have done that. Gee whiz.' Well, then, why didn't you do it?"

From the Ground Up Some prominent projects by BBL Construction Services. Hilton Garden Inn, Troy: 15-story, $20 million building that opened in 2009. 677 Broadway: 12-story downtown office building completed in 2005. Park South redevelopment: The ongoing redevelopment of the troubled neighborhood south of Washington Park, where BBL has built four building and has a fifth under construction. 110 State St., Albany: $84 million building, completed in 2002, houses the state comptroller's headquarters.